Fibromyalgia

Comment

Comment by Gary W Addis, LMT on September 19, 2012 at 6:15pm

Thank you, Linda.  Actually, the "official" GPA was 4.0, but computation of all the grades gave me the extra .65 for braggin rights.  LOL.  Passed the license exam 14 weeks ago with an 85.  A full qtr of test review during clinical internship to get that much.  The assessment portion was a humdinger, but I did very well on it (thanks to all of you and the treatment discussions here in the forums.  Gave me a leg up on my fellow students-- most scored "fair" or "poor" on that 20%).

Comment by Linda LePelley, RN, NMT on September 19, 2012 at 5:30pm

Woo Hoo!! Congratulations, Gary!!

Comment by Gary W Addis, LMT on September 19, 2012 at 5:25pm

thank you, friend Stephen. 

the MBLEX is 20% assessment questions.  I took it b/c the school promised to pay for the National also if I passed the MBLEX first; but I may not bother--the national has to be renewed and fee paid in addition to biannual license renewal; the MBLEX never expires.

Yesterday was my last day of school: 4.65 GPA and AAS degree for the two years.

Comment by Gordon J. Wallis on September 19, 2012 at 4:51pm

http://www.myopain.org/

This might be of value or interest for some of you.

Comment by Gordon J. Wallis on September 19, 2012 at 4:04pm

I have someone every week with that diagnosis..  I can distinctly remember only one client that what I thought had real fibromyalgia... All the other times its been trigger points to varying degrees... Thats been my experience anyway.  Its a term like carpal tunnel...Used to easily and too often.

Comment by Eduardo Barrera on September 19, 2012 at 2:59pm

Just posted up a brief bit on fibromyalgia and some of of things to successfully overcome it.  You'll also see a link to free books on health as the authors advise me to the time limited availability.

To live healthily is to have a number of tools and systems which get us to where and what we want to do.  Getting out of pain is just the beginning.

Comment by Stephen Jeffrey on September 19, 2012 at 1:53pm

Excellent post Gary,

you seem to be way ahead of most given equal training.

But nothing is equal in pain is it !!

You have given an example of the perfect dilemma that haunts us all = when to act on our intuition with a client who says "this feels right" when it goes against the book!.

Patient forums are an excellent resource that allows us a deeper understanding that will promote an enhanced empathetic responce during that all important first meeting and medical history take that will make you stand out from all the "other" "therapists" they previously encountered.

There is so much to gain I would set exam questions that would make sure MT students studied them.  

Before I found these patient forums, I used to feel knocked off my feet by the shear scale of suffering when meeting these clients for the first time. Not any more, = they tell their own story, in their own words and better than any medical dictionary.

Gary thats a real shame the instructors think it would confuse !!!

Hats of to ya :) 

. 

Comment by Gary W Addis, LMT on September 19, 2012 at 9:11am

No, the existence of the forums was never mentionedin the classroom.  After I discovered them I urged my fellow students to avail themselves of the advice offered in the forums by professionals with varied skillsets.  This idea was waved off by the instructors: "That will just confuse them, Gary."

The healingwell forums convinced me that when people (and their doctors) can't find a cause of a pain or other issue, they blame it on fibromyalgia!

Stephen, I've been treating a 62 year old diagnosed with fibro for two years who presents with all the symptoms.  Sometimes, all 18 are tender; sometimes, he says he is so sensitive that clothing hurts. 

Now, I didn't do anything differently: because this was early in my schooling, and I just wanted to help a body in pain, I treated the fibromyalgia tender points as I would trigger points.  I applied ischemic compression directly to them but no harder than he could withstand, obviously.  Two, sometimes three times a week.  But after the third week, many of the formerly tender trigger points were...asleep.  By the fifth week, I couldn't find a single active trigger point.  He stopped coming.  Six weeks later he came back, and most of the trigger points I had charted were screaming again.

I see him once a month, sometimes twice a month.  Depending on his intervening activity level, sometimes he grimaces wherever I touch him, other times he is virtually pain free.

Then there is my sister in law, also diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  This lady is inactive, mostly sits around the house.  During a visit to her distant home, she begged me to "do something".  Because this was my only opportunity to treat her, I did get deep into her pain--"no, no, it's alright, keep going, I can stand it."  Precisely what one is not supposed to do with a fibro, right?  Well, it has now been about ten months since I brought her to tears with pressure on 11 fibro points, and today, she is still overweight and diabetic and inactive, but she says she has not had a flareup of her symptoms--for ten months. 

Am I saying I cured fibromyalgia? Hell no.  Maybe neither had the true fibromyalgia, whatever that is.  But, relying on my common sense, I think blaming a hysterectomy on fibromyalgia is asinine.

My unlearned opinion? I think limited activity or, conversely, hyperactivity  or acute injury leads to the formation of one or more painful trigger points, which leads to even less activity which leads to the formation of ever more painful trigger points--and when a doctor can't find any other reason and can't permanently cure them with lidocaine and cortisone, he diagnoses fibromyalgia and sends them to a neurologist for stronger drugs.

So, like Gordon and Daniel and Therese and Drs Travell-and-Simons (and perhaps you, too?, I think that trigger points are the cause of 90% of all neuromuscular pain.  All that having been blathered, I think every human is unique, and has to be treated individually.

Comment by Stephen Jeffrey on September 19, 2012 at 3:07am

Hi Gary

am just curious to know if during your training, you have at any time been guided towards studying patient forums (such as fibro) or have you just been subject to medical definitions. 

Comment by Gary W Addis, LMT on September 18, 2012 at 6:20pm

Lordy, Stephen, weren't they paying attention when the lady reported that trigger point therapy was the only thing they helped?  Drugs, more drugs, PT making things worse...and MT ignored.  Tsk tsk.

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